Lord Shiv is one of the Gods of the trinity of Gods
which Hindus believe in, the other two being Brahma and Vishnu. He is
known as the destroyer, and destroys the world and the end of all the four Yugs
(the four yugs last for 6,480,000 years) for creation to start afresh. He
is a unique god in the entire godheads of Hindu belief and is incomparable with
any other God. He is moody, free of inhibitions, easy to please, protector
of the down trodden, and has the power to alter the laws of destiny. He is
Mahakaal, who destroys and dissolves everything into nothingness. But as
Shankara, he also reproduces that which has been destroyed and dissolved.
His symbol of phallus symbolises this reproductive power.

This prayer (chalisa) praises the Lord and asks for
his help in removing all the problems from the devotees life. It is
suggested that you focus your mind on Lord Shiva or his image and say this
prayer.

Whoever reads this prayer with
utmost devotion,
Shall definitely be helped by Lord Shamboo, without any doubt.

Putra na ho, ichha kare koi,
Nishchaya Shiv prasad se hoi.

Anybody without a son who
prays to you,
Will definitely be blessed with one by Lord Shiv.

Pandit triyodashi ko lave,
Dhyan poorvak hom karave.

The devotees should get a
priest to perform a yagna (prayer) on the 13th lunar day of the
fortnight,
And with full attention and devotion, one must pray to Lord Shiv to get
their wishes fulfilled.

Triyodashi vrita kare hamesha,
Tan nahi take rahe kalesha.

Whoever fasts on the
thirteenth day of the lunar fortnight,
Gets peace of mind and a healthy body.

Dhoop deep naivedya chadhavahi,
Shanker sanmukha path karavahi.

With a lighted lamp, incense
and other payer material,
One should worship before an idol of Lord Shiva with full devotion.

Janam Janam ki pap nasavahin,
Antawas shivpur men pavahin.

A devotee of Shiv will have
all the sins (karmas) of all his births wiped away,
And in the end, he will live happily in the kingdom of Lord Shiva.

Hey Shankar hai aas tumhari,
Dukh peera ab harahu hamari.

O Lord Shanker, you are my
only hope,
Now please end all my pains and worries.

This refers to the time when the earth was faced with a
severe drought. The then ruling king, Bhagirath performed a powerful
penance for water to come to earth. The only hope was for the river Ganga
to come down to earth from heaven. But the force of her was such that the
realm would be destroyed. The only God who could control her descent was
Lord Shiva, who trapped her in his hair. Hence in all images of Lord
Shiva, we see the river Ganga flowing from his hair.

At the time of creation, certain powers were
required by the Gods. The only way to get those powers was to churn the
ocean of creation. As this churning was too great for even the Gods to
perform, they enlisted the help of the demons. Before they could get the
powers, the churning would release a poison that would destroy all the Gods,
demons and the universe. Lord Shiv agreed to swallow this poison as only
he had the power to do so. When the poison appeared, he swallowed the
same. But his spouse, Goddess Parvati, fearing that her husband would die
of the poison, held his throat, preventing the poison from going down any
further. Hence, the poison stayed in his throat, making it the colour of
dark blue.

Ravaana was a great devotee of Lord Shiva, and Shiva
had blessed him that he could not be destroyed. Lord Ram knew of this, and
he knew that the only solution was to pray to Lord Shiv to rescind that boon
given to Ravaana so that Lord Ram could kill Ravaana. (This is from the
Ramayana)

GLOSSARY
(Pronunciation)

A Like in
‘but’
Aa Like in ‘Far’
Ai Like in 'hair’
Ey Like in Whey
I Like in ‘Pin’
Oo Like in ‘Shoot’
Oon ‘n’ has got a nasal sound.
U Like in ‘Put’

SANSKRIT

Sanskrit
believes that the sound of the word never gets ruined and that it has an
everlasting value.

Words
in Sanskrit open out from their seed (beej) form.

A
root is always a single syllable that contains one of the basic sounds a, I,
u, ri

The
root or seed may create a word, yet the word will vibrate to its best, and
gives it tremendous power.

The
Vedic or the Sanskrit view gives more importance to the special sound it
should produce, than to the meaning of the spoken word.